Eye Opener: Holiday slowdown

By
Ed O'Keefe

Happy Tuesday! The Eye decamps later today to points north to celebrate the holidays and recharge ahead of a busy new year. Readers can anticipate sporadic updates over the next two weeks as we assess the impact of the Senate's health-care reform votes and potential confirmation votes on Obama nominees.

Here's hoping you have a safe, warm and happy holiday season -- may your days be merry and bright. And thanks as always for your continued loyalty to The Federal Eye!

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION:
• U.S. imposes 3-hour limit on tarmac strandings: New Transportation Department regulations also say that airlines must provide adequate food and potable water for passengers within two hours of an aircraft being delayed on the tarmac.

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY:
• Federal investigators to look into cause of fatal Coast Guard crash: A 33-foot Coast Guard boat responding to a report of a grounded vessel crashed about 6 p.m. Sunday into a 24-foot boat carrying 13 passengers in the San Diego Bay

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT:
• Crime fell in first half, FBI says: Crime rates haven't been this low since the 1960s, and are nowhere near the peak reached in the early 1990s.

U.S. SUPREME COURT:
• In Supreme Court clerks’ careers, signs of polarization: Until about 1990, the study shows, there was no particular correlation between a justice’s ideological leanings and what his or her clerks did with their lives.